Broomfield council weighs pros, cons of backyard chickens

Broomfield will consider allowing residents to keep chickens in their back yards after requests from residents sent the issue to council this summer.

City council members on Tuesday debated whether or not Broomfield should let residents of single-family homes raise chickens to benefit from home-grown eggs. Some council members see backyard chickens as a sustainable way to keep food on the table and a property owner's right to responsibly raise the animals. Other council members said allowing chickens would open the door to neighborhood disturbances, complicate the municipal code and become a slippery slope for residents who might want the freedom to raise other animals, such as turkeys or goats.

Council discussed the issue during a study session, in which no formal votes take place. Council will take public comment on the issue and vote later regular at a meeting. Discussion of backyard chickens at a regular meeting has not yet been scheduled.

"It's highly unusual that council is so split on an issue, but this has generated more discussions than a lot of topics this year," Mayor Pat Quinn said looking around the room at residents who had turned out to listen. Quinn is in favor of raising backyard chickens, as long as residents follow a list of proposed rules.

Broomfield municipal code does not allow people to keep the animals on residential properties. Chickens can only be raised on agricultural-type properties.

If council approves a change to the municipal code, residents might have to obtain a license and would only be allowed to keep the animals in the back yard, not front or side yards. No roosters would be allowed, and chickens could be banned by neighborhoods with enforceable covenants.

Other proposed rules include setting coops 15 feet from property lines to prevent noise and odor from interfering with their neighbors.

Chickens would not be allowed to run in the yard outside their coop, and each family would have a limit of three chickens.

While Boulder has relatively few rules about caring for chickens, cities such as Longmont and Lafayette require specific square footages for chicken coops and chicken runs. Denver requires a $100 license to keep chickens.

When interviewing staff from surrounding cities, Oglesby said there were few complaints about the practice of raising chickens. The only notable problem was when a free-roaming chicken wandered into a road and "caused some turmoil," he said.

Several residents attended the meeting to show support for changing the code. Among them was Shanelle Johnson, who owned chickens for two years before Animal Control told her it was against the code to keep them in her residential back yard.

The Johnsons moved the coop to a nearby farm, but said the chickens were a valuable educational experience for their four young sons, who took care of them as part of their chores.

The chickens provided enough eggs to keep her growing kids fed, and the family had enough left over to share a dozen with their next-door neighbors. The family also cut down on their waste because they could feed food scraps to the animals.

"If the ordinance changes, we'll start over and get chickens again," she said. "We just loved, loved our chickens. And there's nothing like making an omelet with a warm, fresh egg."

The Johnson family first asked council to reconsider the code in August.

Some council members, such as Mike Shelton, agree that a change should be made.

"This is a right residents should have," he said, adding the economy and changing attitudes toward food sourcing and safety have made raising chickens popular in other areas.

Others, such as Todd Schumacher, said a change might muddle the municipal code, which explicitly prohibits raising livestock in residential areas.

Schumacher said he did not have anything against chickens, but said he did not see the change as a property rights matter, because the existing code already allows for chickens in certain areas.

"We already have existing agricultural areas (where chickens are allowed.) If you want chickens, you are more than welcome to live in those areas," he said.

Dave Jurcak added that allowing chickens might come as an unwelcome surprise to some residents, and changing the code could end up infringing on those people's property rights, especially if owners don't do their part to keep the chickens from becoming a nuisance to neighbors.

"At the end of the day, that pits neighbor against neighbor," he said.

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